unstable cpu speed

[big_khuna]

athlon xp 2000+
ecs k7s5a
512 unknown sdram
maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9

Hi,

Before i ask a question can i point out my system has been running (relatively) fine for a couple of years with the same components other than the harddrive, at the same bios settings.

Ok,

After a windows fatal crash i discoverd my harddrive was knacked, so I bought a new one. It took me days of trying to reinstall (with windows crashing mid installation) to get up and running again.
Now windows crashes very quickly after booting. To cut a long story short, after much harddrive scanning, cable swapping  and device removing that it appears to be the frequency the cpu is set at.

I had been running both cpu and ram at 133mhz without problem, but now the only stable settings appear to be cpu/ram 100/133 or 100/100 respectivly.

I figured it's probably a heat or power thing.

I'd appeciate some advice or possible solutions.

Thanks

[A+Net+MCP]

Is your H/S seated in the CPU correctly? Could be heat issue wth CPU. Have you flashed BIOS? Cleared CMOS? Could be bad PSU. AS3/AS5 is a great H/S paste to use.

[Guest]

Sounds like a RAM issue to me.
If you have multiple sticks of RAM installed, try each one individually until the malfunctioning stick is found.
I would use a different working system to check the RAM because it sounds like your system has a hosed install of windows.
Good luck!